Gaming within crypto space is not really gaming
Let me explain myself a bit further than that, most games that are surrounding crypto couldn't even be called games! Why would that be the case? Answer is simple - these "games" focus more than 80% of their time and efforts on the economical aspect rather than gameplay. If you have followed recent trends in crypto gaming you should be aware of newest releases. These "games" have pretty much no gameplay and yet they have these exclusive NFT pre-sales which pretty much is there to suck out all your money. When it comes to crypto, there's plenty of money sinks and drains - from latest and greatest coins/tokens to gaming (NFT land areas are the most popular).
Exceptions to the rule
With all from above said there are exclusions to this rules, as always. There are games such as Splinterlands - card based game that rewards crypto for winning, Axie Infinity - let's just say Pokemon without the roaming aspect, for now. Both of these have integrated crypto economy but the difference being actual focus on gaming, even though I am not a fan of card/turn based games for the most part.
When the bar is so low there's no wonder why such games have been able to easily move forward, makes sense for them to fight a winning battle. There's another contestant that beats these two mentioned, gameplay wise. And its name is:
Lost Relics
Remember playing Diablo? If yes then great if no, well let's dive into this. Lost Relics is a hack and slash type of game where your main objective is to, well become rich with gold and NFTs. Let me guess -but doesn't that sound like one of those games you just ranted about? Well, there are common things in many games even non-crypto ones, so kind of. Main differences are as follows:
No "starter pack purchase" require - just download, create an Enjin wallet if not already present
Free to play with benefits to spend money - when I was talking about getting rich I meant the in-game gold. The gold for your surprise can be used to buy "blockchain items" - NFTs respectively. Most weapons and accessories will be NFTs which can be purchased with Enjin on Enjinx marketplace.
Subscriptions that can you can "grind for", this ties in with last point around gold - you can buy "power pendants" from other players to either activate membership features or resell at a higher price later on.
Gameplay forces speed, accuracy and strategy - unlike turn based games that give you a lot of time to think, here you would probably not want to sit in a single place for more than a few seconds.
Gameplay
As we can see in the image below, there's information about accessories/items and weapons equipped. As you can see on the top left corner, the game is still in early access but is playable and enjoyable nonetheless. Let's look at the center part of the top side, here you can see you skill book/achievements/skills and daily rewards from the left to right. On the right side first object we see is greyed out- this is your membership status, different colours for different subscription activators (1 day, 7 days, 30 days and 90 days). The red circles are bounty bucks that are acquired by doing bounties/quests. These bucks can be exchange for an exclusive, Limited Edition NFT weapon currently. At the bottom we can see green bar being health and blue being energy - used for empowered attacks. Below the bars we have item slots.
Next image gives us an impression of the tavern but for now we will focus on bounty giver: Berinon.
Now we would typically interact with this NPC to get quests. To get quests unlocked you have to go through the tutorial.
Sneak peak of how the bounty menu looks like:
Now that we have acquired our bounty we are heading over to the dungeons which are across the map, which only takes about a minute - early access, remember? Note that you don't have to take the bounties but they give you good rewards and incentives to play the game.
The dungeon entrance looks like a big cave, who would miss that? For some fancy visuals look for the image below. As you can see in the image there's a big overview and different destination you can chose from. Some of these are still in development(greyed out) while some have a lock. Areas with a yellow crown and a lock are for members only, remember I mentioned how you can get it with in game gold?
Now that you have clicked one of the areas you will see general information about the area on the left side including materials obtainable and difficulty. Just under the map you can see what rarities of weapons and items you are allowed to bring.
Time for some action - now you have entered a dungeon and we are ready for the fights, you will have default weapons equipped at all time unless you wield something else. Remember the image from the start? That's the start of the dungeon with a stone golem that I was fighting - more like orb walking and shooting.
Want to have some AFK time as well? Not a problem, just go fishing, but then don't be surprised if nearby mobs that you didn't kill start swarming you. I was safe since I killed those two mobs there as you can see. Don't try eating raw fish, it won't work!
Now that we have cleared the dungeon and gone through the epic exit of flaming circles (don't ask me why). You will a summary of your earned skill points/gold and items found. And..... another image below for it - the more the better, right?!
